a Touch of a Feather
by FinisDux
Summary: This is a Story I  FinisDux  and Inbetwixt93 of deviantart wrote.  The main characters are Zack Fair and the OC, own character of us, Sarah.
1. Chapter 1

The Descent

This is the place where everything began. Everything was made of iron… a big room… far and wide, but no one to see… and…there was this thing…it seemed everything was geared towards that glass cage. A boy entered this room. "Oh, damn…lost the way." This black spiky haired boy with the 2nd class uniform looked around this strange place… "Where the hell…am I?" he wondered aloud, his brows lowering in a disgruntled manner. Then he saw it…this mysterious cage.  
>Suddenly a mechanical sound of movement was echoing in his ears. He looked all over himself but saw nothing. He glanced back to the glass cage - that was when he caught sight of the girl lying in it. She had no shirt, no vest, nothing; her legs were nearly teared to pieces. He could see her trembling and shivered himself, imagining the distressing sound of her crying. However, this thought was interrupted by the crackling of a set of speakers. A shrill familiar voice sounded: "So…this is your last chance to show me "the power"…or you'll be deleted…failed experiment." Panes were above the boy. Where a scientist with round glasses and long black hair bounded in to a ponytail could be seen.<br>A soft female voice sounded from the speakers: "I'm…not…"  
>"Stop that. You're not made for being able to feel emotions. You're a cyborg, an iron beast. Number two!" he snapped in a loud voice.<br>The boy drew his sword and said in a low undertone: "I have to safe her…" he begun running towards the cage imprisoning the girl.  
>As the man said his condescending words, the girl lifted herself from the ground on shaking, but strong arms. "I'm…not…your experiment…!" She gasped defiantly. "I'm human!" she raised her arms and let out a furious roar. It was not something one would imagine ever coming from the mouth of a girl... let alone a human... it was like a roar of a beast merged with the squeal of twisting metal.<br>"What the f-" says the boy loudly . A pang of fear struck him as the glass of the cage shattered, him having forced his way through.  
>Parts of her body turned to iron before his eyes, her fingers sharpening, her feet becoming as hooked and deadly as the talons of a hawk. Wings grew out of her back…white…and held by iron. Her eyes…as red as blood. Terrified, Zack reeled back a step but he was stuck fast to the spot as her uncanny eyes met his own: blue…deep, like ocean and heaven together.<br>"Finally!" The crackling voice of the man sounded over the speaker system. "now…give it the sedative."  
>Scientists appeared from behind and tried to give her the injection as instructed, but as they thrust the needle into her the point broke.<br>"Idiots! At the skin, not the iron!" Shouts the now aggravated man behind the panes.  
>"I'm not a thing!" She yelled in her shrill metal voice. In her outrage, she lashed out at the boy who was trying to help her. Zack tried to defend himself without hurting her; his efforts were soon rendered unnecessary as the other scientists succeeded to give her the sedative while she was distracted from them. She reverted to way she was when the boy had first set eyes on her, and fell into his arms; he clutched her to him tightly and ran off before he could be caught.<br>"Foolish boy," said the man in charge, his tone dangerously calm. "…Stop him."

'Hold on!' yelled Zack as he felt the girl in his arms grow limp, the sedative the scientists used on her having taken full effect. He slowed his pace a little to reposition her; she was so light, so fragile. How could someone ever consider hurting a girl like that? Unfortunately however, whatever it was that the scientists had done to her she certainly wasn't the gentle girl that she appeared to be on the outside... when she was human that is. He had to get her somewhere safe before she woke; he didn't want to have to face her in on the other side of a sword again. _Those eyes... _Zack recalled with a mental shudder. Like twin crimson suns, they had scorched themselves into his memory forever. He couldn't erase them from his thoughts, yet he still felt compelled to save her from whatever fate the scientists of Shin-Ra had designed for her.  
>He jogged from the laboratories on level sixty-eight, and into one of the staff elevators, the one he had used to get onto this floor a mere few minutes before. Pressing a button on the wall to his left with his elbow – the edge of the button illuminated itself as he touched it – he leant down and carefully placed his burden on the floor.<br>'Wait a minute,' Zack murmured aloud, his brow furrowed in thought. He couldn't allow himself to be caught if they tracked the movement of the elevator – he wasn't sure that was even possible, but knowing Shin-Ra, and its obsession with security, it was probably best to assume the worse. Heaving the girl into his arms again, he darted back out of the elevator before the doors closed and whipped around the corner into the adjacent corridor. A short way down was the entrance to the emergency fire escape. He thrust the door open with his heel just as he heard the slip slap of pursuing feet. They would assume he used the elevator, which would be on its way down already, empty and distinctly Zack-less. Nobody ever used the stairwell – not if they could help it. It was quicker to wait for the next elevator – especially for a measly old coot like Hojo. Zack grinned slightly at his wit.  
>Thundering down the stairs as fast as he could without endangering his fragile burden, and passing many landings that led off onto other levels, he slowed to a stop, now panting slightly.<br>'You're giving me a good workout,' he commented cheerfully to his unresponsive burden, having propped her up against the wall. Above her in giant red stencil font was the number "61". He had no clue what was on that floor.  
>Though reluctant to burst in on something, curiosity and a sense of reckless daring overwhelmed him. Disregarding the safety of him and his charge, he pressed his hand down on the thick bar across the door and slowly eased it open; a dark corridor met his bright, inquisitive blue eyes. The corridor emanated a mysterious, almost foreboding quality, and he felt himself both drawn to and repelled by the danger. Letting the door creep closed again, he glanced back down at the girl he had boldly rescued.<br>'You wait here,' Zack told her unnecessarily. 'I'll come back.' He disappeared beyond the blank door a moment later, the unpleasant echoing screech of the heavy door ending in a resounding BANG as it shut.

The girls' eyes swam beneath her lids and slowly her lashes parted revealing not the demonic red irises Zack had seen back at the laboratory, but cool jade green ones that reminded him of tree ferns and forests – places far away from Midgar and its trials and tribulations. It was a long time before she could remember anything substantial; it took a while for the drowsy effects of a sedative to wear off. When she did come fully to, a part of her wished she couldn't remember any of the last few weeks.  
>'You don't have to worry,' a silhouette attempted to reassure her from above, a hulking shape cast by the yellow light of a lamp lit on a nearby coffee table. He smelt of Mako – she wrinkled her nose in distaste; it was the scent of the science laboratories.<br>She had been brought into a darkened room, tidy and well-furnished as far as she could see. It appeared to be some sort of Break area for staff, though judging by its stale scent, it had not been occupied for some time. The shuttered windows suggested it was late; she felt a little saddened by this. She often dreamt of nature, and suddenly wished to look out of the window into the starlit night.  
>'Nobody's gonna hurt you here. It's only me. And I promise,' the boy added sincerely, for he sounded like one; 'to keep you safe. You can count on me.' He moved so that the light fell on his youthful, smiling face. 'I'm Zack, by the way.'<br>The young girl regarded him with a watchful air. Those artificially bright blue eyes – she hated them; it was the mark of Shin-Ra. To trust him was against every fibre of her being: it was Shin-Ra that had made her the way she was. She hated the company, and in extension, its many departments. SOLDIER was no exception. And this boy, with his childish, fanciful gestures of heroism... what could he possibly do to help her? He could certainly hide her away, but for how long before Shin-Ra found her? Not only that, he would be punished for stealing her. Staying with him would be just another prison... she could do without all that.  
>Instead of voicing her opinion, however, the mysterious girl with the hidden powers held her silence and allowed her saviour to indulge himself in his little fantasy. There was nothing she could do to change her situation short of telling Zack to return her to Hojo's laboratory – her legs were ruined, having been torn to shreds because of her transformations into the metal hell beast Zack had witnessed her become. She knew he was frightened of her – she had sensed it when he had appeared, sword in hand, having broken into her glass cage. Pathetic SOLDIER, she thought in disgust.<br>'Well, I'm gonna go now,' Zack told her after a few rather long, awkward moments of silence. He stood, his trousers rustling loudly in the empty silence. 'I'll be back again soon. I would stay but... there's somewhere I have to be right now. You'll be alright, won't you?'  
>He took the girl's silence for a yes. 'Okay then... Be seeing ya.'<br>The girl listened for his footsteps down an adjacent corridor until they were swamped by the heavy bash of a door some distance away. She was alone; alone for the first time in what seemed like an age.  
>Heaving herself off of the couch she had been lain on, she eased herself down to the floor, turned off the lamp and crawled towards the window. It took her eyes a moment to adjust to the perpetual darkness that filled the room, but felt enveloped and comforted by it rather than fearful of it; darkness had long since been her only ally. She knew that within its gentle folds she could not be seen by her enemies, and she could hide in its false sense of solitude from the horrible, painful world. The scientists had never left her on her own before.<br>Reaching up to the blinds, she hooked her fingers around the knob at the end of the string and jerked on it, causing the blinds to shoot up into a roll at the top of the window. From where she lay sprawled on the floor, she could see the many stars dotting the evening sky, a slight yellowish hue tinting the black blanket of the heavens with the lamplight of the city below. The girl let her imagination take over, forgetting Midgar and Shin-Ra with an ease that had escaped her for what seemed like an age.  
>That night, she soared amongst those stars; a crisp breeze blew, tickling her skin, and tousling her hair. Silky, feathered wings beat silently beside her, sending her pelting across a magnificent mountainous landscape, their peaks topped with snow. The howl of a creature sounded in the distance, and was met by its fellows, a melodious song that only she could understand the words to. That night was the first without pain; because beside her beat the wings of an angel.<p>

Zack was now quite late for his appointment. He had been supposed to attend a medical examination – a regular occurrence for the artificially enhanced SOLDIER members – on one of the floors of the science department when he had stumbled across the girl. He had clearly gotten the venue mistaken.  
>He jogged down the stairwell to a lower floor and got into the elevator there, thinking that it would look suspicious to enter from a supposedly empty floor. He strode about with his usual spirited air, an easy grin plastered across his face, trying to forget the girl for the time being. It was hard not to mull over his unusually reckless actions. And what was he to do with her now he had saved her? He couldn't exactly walk out of the front doors with her. He frowned slightly. He hadn't thought this far.<br>Maybe I could get her some clothes – dress her up as one of the staff… Or dress her as a citizen, and claim to be her escort.  
>That left the question of her ID pass. Every person in Midgar had an ID pass to move about the sectors. If you didn't, you were arrested. That posed a problem.<br>Maybe she could pretend she has misplaced hers… or had it stolen. Yeah, that's why she's filing the case with SOLDIER! She could be a prominent member of some organisation, and she had some items taken along with her ID. No one will question that. I'm only a Second – not prominent enough to get noted by anybody... This was something Zack almost regretted.  
>He'd need his helmet, he thought to himself, leaning against the railing inside the elevator. Nobody would be able to recognise me then.<br>'I wonder what your name is…?' Zack thought aloud suddenly, thinking of the girl. It hadn't occurred to him to ask.  
>He had barely took a step out of the lift when it hit him—<br>A slug to the face. Ouch.  
>Zack recovered quickly, but found that he was held fast by two masked SOLDIER operatives. Nathan and Alexander from what he could tell. Fellow 2nd Class's. He'd trained with them last year...<br>'Get off of me, man!' Zack yelled in surprise, his heart thumping against his ribcage. How could they have found him out so fast?  
>They would not release him; he struggled to wrench his arms from their combined grip, but found that the two of them were too strong. They had caught him completely off-guard. One kneed him in the stomach – hard – and he doubled over, grunting in pain. 'Dammit!' he gasped. 'What in the hell is going on here?' he demanded.<br>'You are being apprehended,' said a smooth, authoritative voice, 'on the accusation of theft, and destruction of property owned by the Shin-Ra science department.'  
>'What?' Zack said scandalously, his heart beating faster. Lying was an anathema to him; it was like sunlight was to vampires – proper ones at least.<br>'Do you deny these accusations?' asked another, greatly familiar voice. His heart dropped like stone into the region of his throbbing gut. Angeal.  
>As Zack straightened, he picked out the Director of SOLDIER, Lazard and his beloved mentor SOLDIER First Class Angeal Hewley, who stood at the Director of SOLDIER's side, his face characteristically shadowed by a deep scowl – but to a greater extent than usual. Suffering Angeal's disappointment brought the same sick feeling to his throat as the thought of lying to his comrades. Though that could have been a result of the knee he'd just received to the gut… it was hard to tell.<br>'There is sufficient evidence to convict you.'  
>'No,' Zack finally admitted. 'I don't deny it. I did what I thought was right in the circumstances,' Zack declared in an abrupt, soldier-like manner. 'Just what any SOLDIER would do. I had to save her.' His flickered appealingly in Angeal's direction.<br>'Zack, there is a fine line between being a hero...' began Angeal, looking thoroughly unimpressed.  
>'And being a meddling nuisance,' the Head of Science, Professor Hojo finished, stooping on the Director's other side.<br>'You mean... the company... allows these so-called experiments to happen?' asked Zack. '…That's torture!'  
>'What the company does or does not do is none of your concern,' Professor Hojo said icily, though the chilling effect was rather weakened by his irritatingly nasal voice. 'You are merely a soldier, whose duty is fight, and to follow orders. You need not think.'<br>'We're more than that,' Zack vehemently disagreed, clenching his fists angrily. Why wasn't Angeal trying to defend him? He shot a beseeching look at him – that was when he noticed _him. _Sephiroth, the legend, concealed within the shadows at the other end of the badly lit corridor; as a result, Sephiroth's expression was undiscernible, especially from this distance. Zack was astounded that his actions had received such attention.  
>'That is a valuable specimen you have stolen,' continued Hojo, completely ignoring Zack's remark. 'You will return it at once, and face the consequences of your crime.'<br>Zack remained silent, suddenly unsure what to do. Everything that he had been raised to value within SOLDIER... well, as much as he refused to believe it was true, he couldn't help but think he had been betrayed. Relinquish her to Hojo and keep his job in the most optimistic of circumstances? Or defy them and be lucky to keep his life? Was a strange monster-girl really worth the trouble?  
>No, he thought. If he gave up, he would be defying his honour as not just a SOLDIER, but as a person. He had to go through with this. He had to make them understand – especially Angeal. Perhaps the Director would see this as a desirable trait – yes! Zack through triumphantly. You had to stand out to rise in SOLDIER – this was the perfect opportunity. Even if it meant defying someone of another department. There was a lot of interdepartmental rivalry – he could use this to his advantage.<br>As the beginnings of a plan formed in his mind, his resolve grew stronger.  
>'I won't,' said Zack quietly.<br>'Hmph,' said Hojo. 'Take him away. We'll see how long it takes for him to confess.'  
>The pressure at his shoulders increased as his former comrades shunted him forward. The leather straps of his uniform drew tight across his chest because of their pulling, cutting into his skin. 'No!' Zack yelled desperately, struggling against them with all the strength he possessed. 'Angeal! Do something. ANGEAL!'<br>'Let him go,' commanded the Director.  
>Zack was released immediately. He shrugged his shoulders to settle his attire back into place, ruffled by Angeal's lack of response: the First stood stonily at the Director's side – the only man Zack felt any great deal of respect for at the moment – the only change in him being the unfolding of his arms from across his chest.<br>The Director turned to Hojo. 'You have no authority over my men,' he said, slight emphasis on "my". 'Zack,' the Director now addressed him. 'I want you to be aware the seriousness of your situation. I request that you return the creature to Professor Hojo so we might resolve this matter. He rightfully owns the creature; it is not considered human, thus it hasn't the right to walk among the civilised.'  
>'That's stupid,' said Zack angrily. 'Hojo took that right away from her! She's a person underneath whatever he's done to her. He's the one that should be punished for this!'<br>'Zack,' came Angeal's deep voice, in a tone of warning. 'Settle down.'  
>Not having the heart to defy his mentor, Zack remained silent, simmering furiously.<br>'If you do not comply with Professor Hojo's request,' said the Director, 'I'm afraid we'll have to take disciplinary action.'  
>Zack nodded curtly, pushing back a sudden reluctance to disobey his superiors.<br>With that, the Director brushed past him and into the elevator. The door slid closed, leaving a weighed silence in its wake.  
>'Angeal, wh—'<br>'Let it go, Zack. Come on.'  
>'... Huh?'<br>Zack followed a grumpy Angeal from the room, immersed in his thoughts. He didn't pay attention to the shadowy figure by the doorway, whose mouth curved into an odd, unreadable kind of smirk as Zack strode by.  
>'How long exactly did you think you could have kept this hidden?' demanded Angeal in his most stern of tones, after the doors of the next elevator had closed them off from the others.<br>Here comes the storm… Zack thought regrettably, thinking of all the times his actions had initiated one of Angeal's famous lectures. He readied himself for one of the most lengthy yet.  
>During the course of Angeal's furious tirade, Zack's shoulders slowly slouched further and further until he resembled a tortured spiky-haired hunchback clad in SOLDIER garb.<br>'Did you ever think of the security cameras before you decided to take things into your own hands?' Angeal demanded.  
>'You don't mean to say,' said Zack slyly, perking up at a sign the lecture was drawing to a close, 'that you—'<br>'I don't condone what you did, Zack,' said Angeal, cutting him off mid-sentence, but affirming his thoughts nonetheless. 'It was reckless and stupid. But neither do I always condone what the science department does. I certainly don't like what I've heard about what has been done to this young girl. But that does not give you the right to interfere with the matter, Zack. I thought better of you.'  
>Zack seized the opportunity while it was open, however slim the chance of success.<br>'Help me, Angeal,' he pleaded. 'Help her escape from Hojo, at least. I can't take her back to them, not after I promised to look after her.'  
>'No.'<br>'Why—?'  
>'Because I'm your superior, and what I say goes!' Angeal rounded on him fiercely. Zack had never seen him so angry.<br>'S-sorry.'  
>'What were you doing on that level anyway?' Angeal said grumpily. 'It's a restricted area.'<br>'I… got lost…'  
>'Typical.' Angeal shook his head exasperatedly. 'You really need to use your head more often Zack.'<br>'But I thought Hojo said SOLDIER isn't meant to think. Just fight. And follow orders,' Zack said bitterly.  
>'You know what I mean,' growled Angeal.<br>'What do you think will happen to me?'  
>'I don't know. The Director will decide that. You're lucky this hasn't spread out of the two departments. Otherwise it'd be a question of whether you'd be keeping your neck rather than your position.'<br>'You won't let them fire me, will you?' he asked in concern. 'I've worked so hard to get this far…'  
>Angeal's lips remained sealed in surly silence. Zack hung his head gloomily, feeling as ever like a chided child. 'I can see SOLDIER means a lot to you,' he remarked after a while. They were almost back to the SOLDIER floor. 'Maybe this'll teach you not to get carried away by girls so easily.'<br>'W-what?'


	2. Chapter 2

Sarah

Lub-dub...lub-dub... lub-dub... the beating of her own heart, magnified through her heightened senses, pounded in her ears constantly; tormenting her in her resting hours as the pain of her bodily wounds tormented her in the wakeful ones. It was like the heart of a dragon inside the body of a lamb – her body simply couldn't take the strain.  
>The girl spent her hours of newfound freedom lounging on the makeshift bed she had made for herself on the floor of the staff lounge beside the window, wallowing in the pain that thrummed throughout her body, rising and falling to the drumbeat of her pulse. It was day time now, shafts of sunlight finding their way through the cracks in the blinds and spearing needle-like jets of pain through her eyes. She had managed to pull the blinds back down at some point early in the morning, her eyes unaccustomed to the light. It was just another pain to add to her increasingly intensifying retinue of aches.<br>Zack wasn't faring much better himself. Aside from the bumps and bruises from his earlier encounter with Nathan and Alexander's fists', he had to suffer Angeal's slowly diminishing wrath. It was an agonising process. Then there was the inquisition with the Director. He wasn't exactly sure which one he was more scathed from. When he was finally free to leave – miraculously the Director had let him go without more than a warning – Zack, instead of returning to the sixty-first level where his rescue awaited him, went into the city below the Shin-Ra tower.  
>How was he going to bust her out of there, with everyone now, undoubtedly, watching his every move?<br>The streets of Sector One were packed with people, many of which were clad in crisp black business suits with plain silken ties, on their way to and from work; dappling the ocean of black was the occasional purple, or blue, of SOLDIER – Third and Second Classes respectively – given away by the glint of their signature helms. Zack stepped into the crowd and was immediately swept into the surging mass.  
>"'Scuse me, coming through!" he said, shoving his way through, uttering a hasty apology to one severe-looking woman whose high-heeled foot appeared to have found its way beneath one of his pair of rather solid brown boots. The bustle of Midgar had overwhelmed Zack when he had first arrived, just before he had officially started his training for SOLDIER; it was a far cry from the tiny, distant Gongaga where he grew up, a country town where he had knew the names of every townsperson, and newcomers were met with enthusiasm and a sharing of news over a large cup of tea. Here in Midgar, nobody had welcomed Zack but for the empty apartment he had been assigned in a row of blocks exactly the same as the one next to it and a nervous group of young country boys around his age who had also applied for SOLDIER. There were always a lot of applications for SOLDIER – the promise of excitement and adventure, of the strength and prowess they would acquire, and the prestige of becoming First Class and fighting alongside the great hero, Sephiroth – many young men esteemed to be a part of Shin-Ra's elite fighting force, but not all got in. Zack had been one of the small few who had made it through the rigorous medical examinations that were an integral part of becoming an elite member of SOLDIER.<br>He felt a pang of guilt strike his insides. How close he had come to losing all that… and why, he wondered, was the Director going so easy on him?  
>Lost in his thoughts, Zack's feet led him through thinning crowd, among the shadows of the tall buildings and along the familiar path home, vaguely dodging people as he strode along.<br>"Yo, Zack!"  
>Jolting back into reality, Zack turned and grinned at the familiar jaw jutting out from beneath the helm of another Third Class, his best friend Kunsel. They had joined SOLDIER at the same time and had become fast friends, Kunsel's knowledge of the goings-on in Midgar invaluable to Zack, he having grown up in the city.<br>"What's up, man?" he asked his dark-haired friend. "Heard you got into some strife with the higher-ups…"  
>"Yeah…" Zack shrugged.<br>"… Over a woman." Kunsel nudged him in the side with his elbow and gave a heave of laughter.  
>"Nah, man," he responded, pushing him away good naturedly and shaking his mane of spiky hair. "It wasn't like that."<br>"Mn…. Okay then," he said, patting him on his pauldron-clad shoulder as he strode past. "You keep telling yourself that."  
>"Yeah… right," Zack smirked. "Where're you off to?"<br>"Got a mission. Southern Plains."  
>"See ya later then."<br>"Keep outta trouble, eh?"  
>"Try my best," replied Zack, throwing a lazy wave in his friend's direction and pushing his hands into his pockets absent-mindedly. Looks like his story had spread… he had thought – hoped – perhaps people might see it as a heroic act, rather than one of a daring boy, but it seems as though his dreams were still out of reach for now.<br>He found his door, unlocking it and pushing the door ajar. He stood in the frame, staring into his room with seeing it, instead thinking of the dark, disused lounge on floor sixty-one, and the creature he had set loose in their. No! He thought. The human. The _girl _.  
>His eyes fell on his SOLDIER helmet, lying discarded on the small communal dining room bench, where he'd left it the day before. He hated wearing it; he felt choked up with it on, and relished every opportunity he could remove it.<br>"Looks like there's nothing else for it," he remarked to himself, reaching out for the irksome headgear and pulling it down over his head. "Gonna have the worst helmet hair," he sighed regretfully, closing the front door with simultaneous thud and click as the latch slid back into place.

It was surprisingly easy to move about the building unnoticed in his helmet. Nobody questioned his movements, he was just another grunt, another background bob that people's eyes slid past in passing, a nobody. It was a large part of the reason he despised it.  
>He took the elevator to the SOLDIER floor, using the stairs for the last few levels.<br>"Hey – girl!" Zack called out, running into the room. I really need a name for her. "Girl?" he repeated, a knot of fear forming in his chest. He wrenched the stifling helmet off and looked around the dim, silent room. "Where are you?" He searched around, and finally, noticing a row of blinds bent slightly out of shape, discovered the girl lying at the bottom of the window.  
>"You 'right?" he said, reaching out for her shoulder. She opened her eyes, but made no other response. "Is there... something I can do?" he continued. Concern darkened Zack's usually cheerful, enthusiastic tones.<br>Embittered by her suffering, she jerked away, spurning his offer; but not before a strangled moan escaped her throat.  
>"Please," he said miserably. He sat down beside her, leaning against the couch behind him and resting his forearms on his knees. He hung his head. "I almost lost my job today," he said to his knees. "I don't know what I was thinking. I should have thought this through. They know what I've done."<br>"Stupid."  
>Her first words, realised Zack. It was a start; they were finally getting somewhere.<br>"You'd still be in that aquarium if I hadn't have intervened," remarked Zack, feeling a trifle indignant at her lack of appreciation.  
>"Should've left me," said the girl a little while later. She had a quiet, hoarse voice.<br>"Why?"  
>For a few moments, the girl did not speak again, and Zack thought she wouldn't answer. For the first time it occurred to him that maybe she didn't <em>want <em>to be helped – something he couldn't understand – but with an effort she finally spoke.  
>"You have brought me nothing but more pain."<br>"That's not fair," said Zack, a little hurt. "I helped you escape. Once I figure out a way of getting you out of here, you'll be free."  
>A sharp snarl leapt from her mouth. She bared blunt, normal human teeth – Zack had been expecting fangs. <em>I suppose she needs to change to have those,<em> he thought warily.  
>"I'll never be free," she growled furiously. "You can't escape this."<br>The girl refused to speak after that.  
>"If there's anything I can do, tell me," Zack persisted. "I want to help you."<br>He stood up, but as soon as he cleared the lip of the couch, he knew he was in trouble.  
>Flanked by a group of similarly ranked SOLDIER, half of them friends of his, was Angeal. Now he understood why the Director had let him go.<br>"Time to give it up Zack."  
>His heart plunged into the depths of his navel. His short-lived foray of heroism was over. He'd failed her. He could only stand by and watch as they stole his bounty away, her face livid and torn with silent agony.<br>"Wait!" Zack cried out – Angeal caught him around the shoulders and shoved him back.  
>"What did you think you could possibly do to help me?" she spat suddenly as she was being dragged away down the hall. "A monster!"<br>The word echoed chillingly in Zack's memory. _Monster._

At a hall of the Shin-Ra building a SOLDIER stood alone, his back to a big door. He noticed that a fellow SOLDIER crossing his way down the hall to meet him. "Are you the changing of my guard?" He asks the coming one.  
>"Yes."<br>"There are no irregularities to report."  
>"Good." The other SOLDIER leant his back against the wall.<br>"I'm off," he said and darted. As he crossed the corridor and turned the corner, he did not see the other man slip through the door to the chamber inside.  
>"Four…four…" he murmurs as he searched the row of cabins, "Ah! There you are…" he went to the door and knocked on it, then he removed the dastardly helmet off: "Girl? Are you in there?" He called out in a muted whisper, but got no answer, "It's Zack!" he said a little louder.<br>"…Zack…" came her slightly hoarse voice. "The one who brought me more trouble."  
>He hung his head, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly. "…Yeah… that's me."<br>"…What are you up to this time? What are you doing here?"  
>"I just want to talk… my friend helped me."<br>"How?" she asked, though she didn't appear to be as angry with him as before. Curious, even.  
>"He had the guard post today, but said I should take it instead of him," Zack explained. "He said no one would notice that I'm the wrong guy if I would wear that stupid helmet."<br>"Does he know what you did?"  
>"No… but somehow he always knows what's going on."<br>It was silent for a short time, then Zack finally asked: "Do you have a name?"  
>"Number two…"<br>"No numbering. Your real name! All real people have names."  
>"I don't remember anything before all that…"<br>"That's too bad… may I give you one than?"  
>"Just call me monster if you need to give me a name."<br>"No! A person needs a proper name. Hmm… how about… Angela? No, that's to close to Angeal… Sephira? No that sounds like Sephiroth…" The girl sighed. "Call me Sarah."  
>"Huh?"<br>"My name… I remember now… my name is Sarah."  
>"That's great!" Zack said with enthusiasm. An empty silence descended in the wake of this momentous pronouncement.<br>"Zack…?" Sarah broke the silence.  
>"Still here and willing to listen."<br>"…I've been having these strange visions... nightmares… I… I want to be free…"  
>"Nightmares? What kind?" He wondered, frowning silently.<br>"…Killing, eating... people… …bloody nightmares."  
>Zack scratches that back of his head again, almost regretting that he had asked. "Sorry to hear it…" Again, she doesn't reply for some time. "…You know, if you want to be free… let me help you." He heard a little sound of whining. "W…What's wrong? Can I help you?"<br>"…put the helmet on."  
>"W-what?" He wonders as the door suddenly opened and immediately puts the helmet on.<br>Some scientists entered and asked him: "Why aren't you standing in front of this door? What's going on?"  
>"N-Nothing… just… I just thought to hear something… it was nothing."<br>"Then go back to your place!"  
>"Aye!" He said going thought the door. He heard that they opened a door and heard a cry: "Let go of me! ...Let me go!" she was fighting against them. Then he heard something smashing against the wall, then silence… wondering what happened he wanted to take a look but then they came back dragging her. He saw her face. Pain… tears and blood dropping to the floor.<p>

He didn't know where to go but he knew that he had to save her again. He ran to the room where he first met her. No one stopped him or even crossed his way. He remembered what happened, the trouble it had caused and… those eyes. But it was surprisingly easy to open the door and to run inside. There she was... in the middle of the room, having turned back into a beast. The wings, the claws and the iron skin. She was flying in the air and holding Hojo in front of her, pressing her sharp jagger-like fingernails into his neck. Even in a situation like that Hojo was still able to laugh.  
>"Stop laughing!" Her shrill, iron voice sounds. "Take back what you said!" But Hojo just laughs more. "I will never let you hurt him!"<br>"Sarah!" Zack called. He was very happy to see her unharmed so far and temporarily forgot that she had become the very same monster that had attacked him the day he had rescued her.  
>She reacted at the sound of her name. She let go of Hojo immediately and came back to the ground. Back on her feet her wings and claws disappeared. The metal skin returned to normal. "Zack!" she called out to him, and Zack was pleased to hear that this time she didn't sound angry or annoyed. She seemed almost happy to see him. Then, surprisingly, she ran to him and threw her arms about his neck.<p>

"Wow!" he stammered, feeling his cheeks burn slightly. "How did you know?" he whispered into her hair. "I'm wearing a helmet."  
>"You are the only one who knows my name, idiot." She said hiding her smile inside his shoulder.<br>"Interesting… very interesting!" Hojo's voice broke through their reunion, jerking them back to reality. They turned to see him writing something in a notebook. Then he turned away and waved his arm carelessly. "Back to the cage with it."  
>Zack took off his helmet, Sarah still wrapped around him. "Stop treating her like a thing you can throw away if you don't need it anymore! She's a living thing! A person!"<br>"Oh," smiled Hojo, "But I can." He left the room and a group of scientists moved forward to seize Sarah, pulling her away from him. She was too weak to detach herself from them, having lost her strength in the transformations. Zack tried to help her resist them, but was caught around the shoulders from behind. It was Angeal again. Zack tried to see his face. "Angeal? But…! How can you…?"

For a moment Angeal didn't say anything, but as he finally regained the ability to speak, he just said: "Forgive me…" Zack felt a prick in his arm, and then found himself dropping into his arms.

As Sarah woke up she expected to be in her cabin but she saw glass again. She was inside a glass cage, so she knew Hojo had conducted another experiment on her. She sat up and looked around-  
>Zack was there as well, forced to kneel right in front of her cage. His arms had been restrained behind him, while a guard was roughly grasping his long hair in his fist. He was utterly defenceless.<br>"Sorry…" he said to her through the glass. "They got me." He grunted with a short burst of laughter. He was clearly trying to make the best out of the situation.  
>"Finally." Hojo said. "Now we can start. …first try to find out her reaction when you hurt him." A scientist went to Zack, clenched a fist and hit his stomach. Zack coughed, puked and drew a haggard breath. Sarah twitched, but then realised that they just want her to do something so she tried to pull herself together. "Now harm him." The Scientist who hit him now took a bistoury and sliced Zack's arm. Zack screamed with pain but she still refused to give them any reaction, even though it hurt her to see Zack harmed.<p>

"She still isn't responding…" said another scientist.  
>"Kill him." Hojo said icily, in a voice full of callousness. He didn't even bother to look.<br>"What?" said the scientist who had first harmed Zack. "I won't do that!"  
>Sarah's heart leapt as he threw down his bistoury and left.<br>But the scientist who was holding Zacks head was not so kind. He released Zack, who immediately attempted to struggle back to his feet, but was too slow, for the man had taken the cruel weapon into his fist and pressed it on the boy's head. Sarah watched Zack close his bright blue eyes in fear.  
>She couldn't hold back herself anymore. "NOOOOOOOOOOO!" she screamed, her voice turning shrill and ringing through the compound. The floor shook, the glass broke and her body turned to hard, impenetrable iron.<br>"You will not harm a single hair on him!"

She opened her eyes and saw the ceiling of an unfamiliar room. She wasn't at her cabin, neither was she in one of the rooms where they made the experiments on her. She was at Zack's home. He was sitting beside her eating some chips.  
>"Oh!" He said looking at her, "You're awake."<br>"What… happened?" she said holding a hand on her forehead and trying to remember.  
>"You don't know?"<br>"Just… that they wanted to kill you…"  
>"You turned into that…iron …thing…"<br>"I remember that. But… what did I do?"  
>"First you smashed the head of one scientist against the wall, then you ripped an arm of another scientist out… and you smacked Hojo against the speakers just by beating with those wings."<br>"I did what…?" she didn't want to believe that she could do something brutal like that herself.  
>Zack rubbed the back of his head awkwardly, having nothing to say.<br>"…How did I get here?" she said after a pause.  
>"You escaped and took me with you… You brought us both back to my house before you collapsed."<br>"…" she turned to him and softly touched the bandage what was bounded around his maimed arm. "Does it hurt?"  
>"Nah…" He said trying to reassure her. "It doesn't hurt as much as it looks like… I cared about that." she didn't answer and kept looked at his arm anxiously. "Hey listen…" Zack said. "If you feel better then… you may beat me… I can deal with it."<br>First she didn't do anything but then she suddenly pushed his chest so he fell on his back. After getting breath again he laughed. She dropped off of the couch and bowed him over, smiling, happy that he was still alive. But suddenly the smile fades from her face. She glanced between his eyes, and then her gaze fell to his lips. She leant down and kissed him.  
>Surprised, Zack quickly recovered and then took her and turned to lie upon her, kissing her passionately in return.<br>Sarah suddenly pushed him away, freeing herself from his embrace and fled.  
>Zack sat up as if awaking from a daze. He frowned. Wrapping his arms around his knees and leaning his forehead on them, he murmured, "What got into me...?"<p>

She was sitting in the corner of the bathroom. Her head rested on her arms, propped up on the toilet. She was crying.  
>There was a knock on the door. "Sarah?" it was Zack. "Is it okay if I come in?" A short time passed where he didn't do anything, and then he pushed open the door and went down to her slowly.<br>"I-... I'm sorry for-... for running away. I-... I know you won't do anything to me. So... so why did I run?" She said, her arms glistening with tears.  
>Zack knelt down beside her: "... You don't need to be sorry... it was my bad... I don't know what got into me."<br>"You said you would help me... so... you would never try to hurt me...!"  
>"Never!" He agreed, straightening her up and lightly hugging her, "I would never hurt you!"<br>There was silence for a moment, both didn't say a word. Zack was worried for her; Sarah was confused, even afraid.  
>"Did they hurt you...?" he said in his most calm voice.<br>"..." She stopped sniffing and admitted, in a surprisingly controlled manner, "Yes... the SOLDIER saw me as a thing ... so they... used me. … I know it wasn't all of them, but... they all were so... heartless."  
>First Zack didn't say anything - he pressed her tighter to him, angry beyond belief at his comrades. How could they possibly do something like that? It wasn't an action worthy of a SOLDIER. He felt a pang of regret, followed swiftly by a flash of fury - he would never allow himself to become like that. "...I'm sorry..." he said simply, releasing her and holding her shoulders at arm's length. He looked into her eyes, full of tears - looking right at his. "I'll watch over you..." he promised seriously. "for now... how about a hot chocolate to calm down?"<br>She smiled, chuckling faintly: "That would be nice."  
>"All right! I'm right on it!" He said enthusiastically, fuelled by her good spirits. He clapped his hands together and stood up. He was happy; he finally had something new to apologise with. Apologise for all that his fellow SOLDIER did to her. Though, it wasn't entirely for that reason that made him do that. He wanted to do it for her. For Sarah. He stopped walking. Wait, he thought. Is it love...? Love, what drove him to kiss her like that? He shook his head, dispelling the distraction. Chocolate! He continued to walk to the kitchen. I wanted to make her a hot chocolate!<p> 


End file.
